Separation from the Faith

Some priesthoods can exert considerable influence on their followers by being able to separate them from the faith. If, for instance, all followers are promised a certain role in the afterlife, and separation from the faith would deny them that role (and replace it with something far more frightening or ghastly), then the followers of the faith are likely to obey the priesthood.

Naturally, most priesthoods visit this punishment only on those followers who most flagrantly defy the requirements of the faith. Just as naturally, the occasional corrupt priest would threaten followers with this punishment unless they are blindly, absolutely obedient to him.

However, this punishment doesn't work so well in a culture which worships many gods and which has a separate, independent priesthood for each god. If you threaten a follower of the war-god with separation, he might be just as happy to switch over to worship of the sea-god. This is a balancing factor which helps keep down abuse of this right in many cultures. However, monotheistic cultures (those which worship only one god) don't have this balancing factor; they have to rely on the honesty of the priesthood.

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